OCEAN CURRENTS CHANGING, COULD CHANGE MAJOR WEATHER PATTERNS

AMOC (ATLANTIC MERIDIONAL OVERTURNING CIRCULATION), is the system of currents, including the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream.  Studies indicate that the system is  in "its weakest state in over a millennium", experts say.  It could imply significant changes to weather patterns, rainfall patterns, heat and seasonal trends.  The systems of currents, and other scientific study.  Through these studies we can see water temperature trends. See the image, the ocean evidence shows warming trends.

A number of studies have expressed concerns that the change in the circulation, as well as the impacts upon water temperature, could result in massive changes to weather in the USA, some impacting rainfall, flooding, freezing, heat waves and droughts. 

The AMOC is driven by two vital components of ocean water: temperature and salt. In the North Atlantic, warm, salty water flows northward off the U.S. coastline, carrying heat from the tropics. But as it reaches the middle latitudes, it cools, and around Greenland, the cooling and the saltiness create enough density that the water begins to sink deep beneath the surface.

The water then swings back southward and travels all the way to the Southern Hemisphere, submerged, where it makes its way to the Antarctic as part of a global system of ocean currents. The entire system is known as the ocean’s thermohaline circulation (“thermo” meaning heat and “haline,” salt), and it plays many critical roles in the climate. It is also referred to as the global ocean conveyor belt, because it redistributes heat worldwide.

For example: Warm water has lingered instead off the coast of the northeastern United States, where the Gulf of Maine is showing some of the fastest-warming ocean water anywhere in the world.  Then we see a huge center of "frigid cooling" north of the USA (that we now know can drop unusually frigid weather down into the USA and cause chaos as we just experienced. 

Stay tuned, the changes in our climate and environmental impact us all, in powerful ways.